First Steps In Music

The First Steps in Music curriculum is designed to prepare children to become musical in three ways:

Tuneful – to have tunes in their heads and learn to coordinate their voices to sing those tunes.

Beatful – to feel the pulse of music and how that pulse is grouped in either 2s or 3s.

Artful – to be moved by music in the many ways music can elicit a feelingful response.

All adults should be tuneful, beatful and artful so they can participate in the music that is interwoven throughout our lives. Adults who are tuneful can sing lullabies to their babies, sing “Happy Birthday” to their children and friends, sing in worship services, and join others in singing ceremonial songs like alma maters or heritage favorites. Adults who are beatful can rock on the beat while singing that lullaby, can dance at their wedding or their friend’s wedding, and can clap their hands in time with others at a sporting event. Adults who are artful are moved by music and seek out venues to share artful experiences with others in concert halls, in community bands and choirs or listening to National Public Radio. Artful adults enjoy being moved by music.

Adults who are tuneful, beatful and artful are also better able to participate in a community and are able to enjoy opportunities to sing together with others, dance together with others and share listening to beautiful music together with others.

Children who learn to be tuneful, beatful and artful before they leave elementary school will grow to be adults who can benefit from what music can offer. Those that go on to sing in choirs or play an instrument will do so in a more musical manner. Those that do not choose to later sing in choirs or play an instrument will still be enriched by being able to share music in their daily lives.

The First Steps in Music curriculum is a musical workout that grows tuneful, beatful and artful individuals There are eight different activities in each workout. And, like aerobics, in the beginning some participants will likely be clumsy in some aspects of the workout, but if they give it their best, they are bound to improve! And, like an aerobics workout, the more one participates the better the effect. Balancing repetition and variety is key to each workout being effective and interesting.

Following are the 8 musical workout activities.

Pitch Exploration (Vocal Warm-ups)

Fragment SingingEcho SongsCall and Response Songs

Simple Songs

Arioso (Child created tunes)

Songtales

Movement Exploration (Movement Warm-ups)

Movement for Form and Expression

Movement with the Beat

There are aspects of tuneful, beatful and artful development in most of these activities but especially tuneful are #1, #2, #3 and #4….especially beatful is #8 and especially artful are #5, #6 and #7.

​source:www.feierabendmusic.org

Conversational Solfege

The following descriptions of the twelve stages of Conversational Solfege allows for the “music” to be first learned and aurally understood before bonding to the “notation.”

Stage 1: ReadinessRoteSongs and rhymes are learned by rote; they contain rhythm and/or tonal content which will be studied later. Rhythm and solfege syllables are not used at this stage.

Stage 2: Conversational SolfegeRoteRhythm syllables and/or tonal syllables are introduced. Patterns are spoken or sung by the teacher with the rhythm or tonal syllables and students repeat, by rote, those patterns with the syllables. During this stage students bond the sounds of rhythm and tonal patterns with aural labels.

Stage 3: Conversational SolfegeDecode – FamiliarThis stage serves as an evaluation to see if students have bonded rhythm and/or tonal patterns with the correct syllables. The teacher speaks or sings familiar patterns, songs and rhymes with neutral syllables or texts. The students repeat the patterns, songs and rhymes using rhythm or tonal syllables. Patterns used at this stage have previously been presented with syllables during the Conversational Solfege-Rote stage. Songs and rhymes used at this stage should have previously been presented by rote during the Readiness stage. This stage only requires students to aurally recognize and decode previously learned musical examples.

Stage 4: Conversational SolfegeDecode – UnfamiliarThis stage serves as an evaluation to see if students have bonded rhythm and/or tonal patterns with the correct syllables well enough to use the correct syllables when decoding unfamiliar patterns, songs and rhymes. The teacher speaks or sings an unfamiliar pattern with neutral syllables as well as unfamiliar songs and rhymes with texts;the students repeat the patterns, songs and rhymes with rhythm or tonal syllables. Patterns, songs and rhymes used at this stage have not been previously learned. This stage requires the students to generalize from what they know to make sense out of something new.

Stage 5: Conversational SolfegeCreateThis stage develops the ability to think and bring musical meaning to original musical thoughts. Students create original rhythm or tonal patterns or melodies using rhythm or tonal syllables. Reading notation should not be introduced until students have achieved success at this stage. During this stage students begin developing improvisation skills which will enable them to later compose during the Writing-Create stage.

Stage 6: ReadingRoteDuring this stage students are introduced to notation symbols. The teacher reads notated patterns for the students. The students repeat the pattern while looking at the notation. This is much like the introduction of a set of vocabulary words in the elementary grades. While looking at the new words the teacher speaks each word and the children repeat.

Stage 7: ReadingDecode – FamiliarThis stage serves as an evaluation to see if students have bonded the notation for rhythm and/or tonal patterns with the correct syllables. The teacher asks the students to think through notated patterns, songs and rhymes with rhythm or tonal syllables and then speak or sing them aloud using the rhythm or tonal syllables. Patterns, songs and rhymes used at this stage should have been presented previously. This stage requires students to visually recall the sounds and syllable names of previously introduced material. In learning general reading skills this is similar to students being able to read vocabulary words the teacher previously presented.

Stage 8: ReadingDecode – UnfamiliarThis stage serves as an evaluation to see if students have bonded the notation for rhythm and/or tonal patterns with the correct syllables and can generalize that knowledge to unfamiliar patterns, songs and rhymes. The teacher asks the students to think through unfamiliar notated patterns, songs and rhymes with rhythm or tonal syllables and then speak or sing them aloud using the rhythm or tonal syllables. Patterns, songs and rhymes used at this stage have not been presented previously. This requires visual decoding skills and inference thinking. This stage represents true sight-reading skills and is similar to students being able to recognize their new vocabulary words in the context of a new story.

Stage 9: WritingRoteDuring this stage students practice writing notation. Students should copy existing patterns, songs and rhymes and be instructed in proper manuscript techniques. This is similar to early elementary children practicing penmanship as they learn to write letters, numbers and words.Stage 10: WritingDecode – FamiliarDuring this stage students engage both conversational decoding skills and writing decoding skills. The teacher speaks, sings or plays familiar patterns or phrases from a song or rhyme with neutral syllables or the text. Students think each pattern with rhythm or tonal syllables (Conversational – Decoding) and then write the notation for the pattern (Writing-Decode). This stage requires aural and visual decoding but not inference thinking. This stage is similar to students taking a spelling test based on the latest list of vocabulary words.

Stage 11: WritingDecode – UnfamiliarDuring this stage students engage both conversational decoding skills and writing decoding skills. The teacher speaks, sings or plays unfamiliar patterns or phrases from a song or rhyme with neutral syllables or the text. Students think the pattern with rhythm or tonal syllables (Conversational – Decoding) and then write the pattern (Writing-Decode). This stage requires aural and visual decoding as well as inference thinking. If you can sing it with syllables you can write it. The syllables tell you what to write. This stage is commonly understood as “taking dictation.” In language development this stage would be the equivalent to children determining the spelling and writing of an unfamiliar word by “sounding it out.”

Stage 12: WritingCreateThis skill requires students to conversationally Create through inner hearing and then Writing-Decode by transferring their musical thoughts into notation. Musical improvisations can now become compositions.